Sweeping and Switching

Frank writes...

Fall cleaning was the order of the day on Sunday.  One of the smaller steps towards making the 205 presentable was to clean out the car's interior.  I had already put most of the loose parts for the car under the seats but I spent a while tidying up, throwing out or relocating any supplies left over from prior sanding and painting efforts and sweeping up the dirt and debris under the seats.  The results were gratifying.



















Then I spent the rest of the afternoon helping out with the latest round of recreational switching.  One of the switch moves was to bring a Car Department storage boxcar over to the inspection pit lead, where Richard Schauer (on the forklift) and Greg Kepka (in the boxcar) unloaded some GE 265 motors for use under Milwaukee 972 under the careful supervision of Charlie Strong.  These motors were rebuilt several years back and now, with completion of truck rebuild work, are ready to go into the trucks.

Then I worked for a little while as ground man on some switch moves in the strange and distant land known as the South Yards.  The plan is that this week three cars will get shrink-wrapped, which may be the first time IRM has had this done.  The two Laconia-built THI&E cars, 50 and 58, along with CSL 4001 will be thus covered and some switching had to be done to prepare for this.

The museum was pretty active.  The Trick Or Treat Trolley was making the rounds, complete with crowds of kids in costume; the Track Department was hard at work in Yard 13; and Norm and Jeff were hard at work on a rope guard for the Michigan car.